Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. Purchases 2,786,746 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. purchased a new stake in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,786,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $79,840,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NWSA. Metropolis Capital Ltd increased its stake in shares of News by 26.4% during the 1st quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 8,835,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $220,260,000 after purchasing an additional 1,843,900 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in News by 2.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,245,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,842,000 after buying an additional 94,368 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in News by 80.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,069,041 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,441,000 after buying an additional 1,819,652 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of News by 120.6% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 2,326,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,272,083 shares during the period. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of News by 174.3% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 1,911,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,649,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214,648 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NWSA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on News in a report on Monday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $35.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of News in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of News from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.80.

News Stock Down 0.7%

News stock opened at $30.43 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $16.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.54 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. News Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.20 and a twelve month high of $31.66. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $29.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $27.65.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.14. News had a net margin of 6.35% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.25 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that News Corporation will post 1.31 EPS for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a dividend yield of 68.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.42%.

News Profile

News Corp is a global media and information-services company whose Class A common stock trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol NWSA. The company operates a portfolio of businesses spanning digital and print publishing, subscription products, professional information, real estate services and book publishing.

Its principal businesses include Dow Jones, which provides financial news, data, research and professional information through publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s; News Corp Australia and News UK, which operate newspapers and digital news platforms; and HarperCollins Publishers, which publishes fiction, nonfiction, educational and religious titles.